The Terps lost again, and I'm willing to accept the notion that there are no moral victories. At 2-4, including an uninspired win over Towson (but a win is a win), there hasn't been a lot to get excited about. But is there a proverbial silver lining behind the dark clouds?

Maryland looked horrible against Temple. There's no denying that. But if that game is taken out of the equation, what do we have? In the remaining three losses, all against a ranked opponent, Maryland had every opportunity to win the game. Late drives against West Virginia and Georgia Tech stumbled, denying a win in both of those games. And against Clemson, an undersized, young, worn-out, depleted defense held among the best offenses in the country to 17 points in the first half. Win two of those three and we're 4-2.

With C.J. Brown's play against the Tigers last night, our quarterback controversy appears to be behind us, and our once-sputtering offense racked up nearly 500 against a very good defense that looked thoroughly confused most of the night. We only turned the ball over once, and had a 50% third-down efficiency rating.

Are there still issues? Certainly. We need to find a few receivers who can consistently catch the football. Brown was 17-35. But had the we'll say four passes (I think that's conservative) that were dropped been caught, he would have been 21-35 - not bad considering his lack of practice and playing time. Also, the defense needs to get healthy. Playing so many freshmen, and having, arguably, two of your best defensive players out of the lineup completely will cause problems for any team. In six of the last eight quarters, the defense has played remarkably well given the circumstances.

There is cause for optimism. Those who predict we'll win the rest of our games this season made be a bit optimistic - Florida State is not an easy place to win - but winning the rest of the games this season, I think, is realistic.